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an island in the Southern Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Farmers and fisher- men, the lives of the Are Are are inter- twined with their land. It’s an important relationship that’s expressed in their music, with the sounds of nature repre- sented in their melodies.
The Are Are enjoy a rich and complex music tradition, featuring vocal polypho- ny and bamboo pan-pipe orchestras. If the sound strikes you as familiar, this may be because one of their traditional tunes, Rorogwela, was lifted off a series of field recordings made by the renowned eth- nomusicologist Hugo Zemp in the late ’60s and ’70s to enjoy considerable suc- cess as Sweet Lullaby by Deep Forest on their best-selling eponymous debut in the early ’90s.
The hocketting pipes and rhythmic pounding on slit drums sound, to Western ears, like trance/dance, and watching Narasarito perform in their traditional kit, (fairly minimal) and body paint (quite a lot) adds to the sense of deep-rooted tra- dition in an exciting and absorbing musical experience. Whilst the chance to catch a performance live in the open air shouldn’t be missed, you can listen to their wonder- ful music at home courtesy of their debut album Warato’o (reviewed fR348). And happily, they now receive the credit for a sound that is indisputably, uniquely, theirs.
Peatbog Faeries
Familiar to the folk audience, perhaps, but not so much to the world music hordes. The award winning Peatbog Faeries take traditional Scottish music by the scruff of the neck and hurl it into the near future. The line-up of pipes and whistles, fiddle,
Peatbog Faeries
Narasirato
guitar, bass and percussion, keyboards and drums make music for dancing. They have in fact written an original piece for the Scottish Ballet, though that’s not the kind of dancing I’m talking about here. A tight bass and drums pound out dub bass reg- gae rhythms or perhaps funk or straight four to the floor. It’s music that lifts your feet and your heart.
Their appearance at the Rainforest
World Music Festival in Sarawak, where I caught them play in 2007, was the best thing. As dry ice swirled like mist they appeared on stage as if emerging from the virgin forest behind it, all kilts and knives in socks, blue body paint and bagpipes blaring. Rock’n’Roll! Only folk. Just not folk that the Macrimmons or the Camp- bells might recognise.
The melodies (composed by piper Peter Morrison and fiddle player Peter Tickell) are sometimes tinged with jazz or shot through with electronica, and – virtu- oso musicians all – when they play off each other on stage the exhilaration level is ramped up by several notches. But they’re not just great performers, they’re gentlemen too, as I happily discovered when landing in a spot of bother in the rainforest, they leapt to my defence. Chivalry, talent and testosterone. What’s not to love?
Their latest album Dust (fR341/2) is their seventh, recorded on Skye, which is where the Peatbogs call home. A track from it appears on fRoots 37.
www.womad.co.uk F
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